Address—J. Brereton
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I would like to turn, first of all tonight, brethren, to the second chapter of Genesis.
What I have before me tonight is to consider the subject of light and darkness.
And to consider the subject of light and darkness from the point of view of God's sovereign act.
And from the point of view of our responsibility, we find them both marked very carefully for us in this precious word.
But first of all, I would like to draw your attention to some verses in Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis chapter 3.
In all this Genesis chapter 2 and verse 8.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The Tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Then the third chapter. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yeah, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.
And gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sold fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
My brethren, the reason I read this scripture before we turn to the other passages I have before me.
Is to draw your attention to the fact that when God gives us the description of the garden in the second chapter, He specifically tells us in the end of the ninth verse the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.
And the tree of knowledge of good and Evil.
Now I have no doubt that the tree of life.
In its ultimate picture is a type of Christ, a picture of Christ.
That tree of life was the center of the garden.
And it specifically called the Tree of life the source of life.
But when we come to the third chapter, we find that when Eve is tempted by the serpent.
She displaces the tree of life in her mind, and to her the tree of life is no longer the tree in the midst of the garden. For her, the tree that's in the midst of the garden is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And so when you go to the third chapter, she specifically says in the third verse.
But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it.
Neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Our brethren, it's vital to.
To us in the considerations that we will have before us tonight if the Lord permit.
That we remember that God has only one standard.
And that standard is Christ.
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When the subject is the Sinner, it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And the only one who met God's standard is Christ.
The one who in himself was the display of the glory of God.
And so we find when God gives us this picture of the garden, he sets before us the fact that the tree of life is the one that's in the midst of that garden, and then brings in the fact that there's a responsibility connected with it too. And that's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now when we have the assembly before us.
The principle remains the same.
Christ is the center.
And all matters that come before us must ever be considered in the light of the One who is in the midst Christ, the center.
Now we also have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and so consequently.
There is our responsibility.
We have a responsibility to act in obedience to the Word of God.
But we find that when Eve is tempted.
As I mentioned before, she loses sight or ignores the fact that the Tree of Life is what is in the midst of the garden and looks solely at the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and speaks of it as being in the midst of the garden.
And the result is in looking solely at, can I say the tree of responsibility and losing sight of the place of the tree of life.
She is left, then, to her own reasoning.
And she looked at the tree and decides on the basis of what appears good to her, that she should eat of the tree.
And the result was sin came into the world.
Our brethren, we have this principle.
To be considered in the light of our families.
For instance, there are fathers and mothers here tonight.
Some with young children.
If you view in the light of what we have here, the tree that's in the midst of your garden.
Your family, your home, if you view the tree that's in the midst of that garden as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What you're going to do is lay down a lot of rules and regulations.
Perhaps even add to the Word of God as Eve did.
But using your own mind to do the reasoning.
Your home isn't going to be a garden at all.
You're going to forfeit.
The place that God wants your family, your home to be. A garden.
But if?
You find in your home that Christ is the center.
That everything in your home centers around the Lord Jesus Christ.
If the children in your home are given to see that the tree of life.
Is the tree in the midst of your garden?
Then we find that everything then takes its proper course.
Because with the standards set by the recognition of the Lord Jesus as the center of your home, then we find room for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and act as responsible parents to bring our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But recognizing.
That Christ is there.
The same is true in the assembly.
We never judge rightly unless we recognize.
That the Lord Jesus is the center of his people and that whatever.
Is allowed in the assembly or not allowed in the assembly?
Is to be decided on the basis of to whom we're gathered.
The Holiness.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is the center of his people.
Now I could mention I wouldn't.
But I could mention, and I speak to my own heart, I'm not pointing a finger at others when I say this. The homes of dear Christians, dear beloved Saints of God.
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Who have raised their children in the ultimate of strictness.
The children were prohibited, in effect, from everything.
There was a law for every circumstance.
But the Lord Jesus was not set before the children.
All they saw was rules and regulations.
And the time came.
When they rebelled.
They hadn't had the Tree of Life set before them either, in Word.
Or in practice, just the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Things added to the word.
And the result is the tree of life is displaced in the home.
In the assembly.
Before our children.
And the result is sadness.
And as we see ultimately.
There now, as we look at this subject of light and darkness, I trust that we'll have before our hearts this principle.
That when God separates between light and darkness, he is setting before us absolute moral values.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is the pattern.
The tree of life.
You turn back to the first chapter of Genesis now for a moment.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided.
The light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Now I'd like you to just keep that place for a moment and turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 4.
The fourth verse, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Our beloved brethren, we find that first of all in the subject of light and darkness.
And we'll find it all here in this first chapter of Genesis God sets before us.
His own acting in sovereign grace.
We next find He sets before us Christ as the one who is the display of His Holiness and grace. And then we find our responsibility right before us.
We find here, first of all, God tells us of a scene where darkness was the characteristic that the Spirit of God saw wherever he went.
Notice it says in that second verse, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. It was a scene characterized by darkness.
It's not my thought tonight to go into the.
What happened before this?
But something that God does not describe to us happened, that caused the first creation that came from the hand of God to be ruined.
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Now, in principle, exactly the same thing happened with man.
When man came from the hand of God, the Lord God could look upon the scene and say it was very good, But something came in, and God's creation of man became a thing of ruin.
Man fell and what the Spirit of God then saw.
Was a scene of darkness.
It was a scene in which man, Adam and Eve pictured to us so graphically there in the third chapter of Genesis.
Hid themselves.
From the presence of the Lord.
They knew full well that the result of their sin was.
Moral darkness. They were not suited.
To the presence of the one who is light.
Well, in creation, the Spirit of God faced such a situation. God acted and it says in the third verse. And God said, let there be light and there was light.
I understand. I am certainly no Hebrew scholar by any means, but I understand that literally translated this verse is God said like be and likewise.
Now, brethren, what did this scene of confusion do to receive the light? What act did the darkness take? None whatsoever. God acted and brought light into the midst of darkness.
Now we turn it over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, and what do we find?
Exactly the same thing set before us, the human heart, morally at a distance from God, a scene of darkness.
And God commanded, the one who had commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts to give the light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And I trust that is true of everyone here in this room tonight, that God by His grace hath brought the light into your heart, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Oh, brethren, what did we do to merit salvation? Nothing whatsoever. Our hearts were as dark morally as this world was dark physically.
But God has brought light out of darkness.
But then you notice it says in Genesis chapter one and God saw the light that it was good.
And God divided the light from the darkness.
Now God created, God acted, God spoke.
And light was, but then it tells us specifically.
That God divided.
Light from darkness.
My brethren, put very simply in terms that we would use today, what is morally pictured to us here is a scene where there are no what we call Gray areas.
God doesn't speak of twilight and dust. He talks about light.
And darkness and God separates. He divided between what was light and what was darkness. No more a mixture. No thought of a mixture whatsoever.
A clear cut division between light and darkness. And this distinctly tells us and God called the light day.
And the darkness he called night. He not only divided them, but he gave them different names. No confusion, no mix up, no carryover from one to the other.
A clear cut division between light.
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And darkness.
Now I would like you to turn over with me please to 1St John chapter one.
One John. Chapter One.
And verse 5.
This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light.
And in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness.
We lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Now we noticed in Genesis chapter one that God divided the light from the darkness.
Here it distinctly tells us that light is the character of God.
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
But then it tells us if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness.
We lie and do not the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light.
Our brethren, I mentioned, and I'm sure these things are not new. I don't mean to suggest that they are new to any of you here.
We noticed in Genesis chapter one that it was God's sovereign act to bring light.
Where there was only darkness.
And then he divided between the light and the darkness.
Well, God has shone into your heart and mind by grace.
And he has divided between light and darkness.
And if you are a child of God tonight, if you belong to Christ.
You are in the light, That's where God has brought you.
Into the light.
It isn't a question of your walk, of your obedience, any more than your salvation was a question of your walk or your obedience.
It's a question of what God has done.
He separated between light and darkness, and here we have those who are in the light.
And those who are in the darkness.
If you belong to Christ, you are in the light. You walk in the light.
I understand.
Some older brother may be able to tell me differently afterwards, but I believe it was Mr. Potter. Many years ago somebody asked Mr. Potter what happens if a Christian turns his back on the light.
And his answer was it will just shine on his back.
Because he's in the light and he can't get out of it. That's where he's been introduced into the light. God is light, and what we have in this chapter particularly is the subject of communion to be enjoyed in the light.
And it is such a precious thing, beloved brethren, to see that God brings before us in the very verse where he says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We are in the light, and what has made us suited to that light is the blood of Jesus Christ.
As one brother put it many years ago, everything that the light exposes, the blood cleanses, and the result is we are suited to the light. Now. This is God's sovereign acting in grace. You're a child of God, you've been brought into the light, and that's where you walk.
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Regardless of what you allow in your life.
You walk in the light positionally because God has brought you there.
Now if you would turn with me, please, to Ephesians.
Chapter 5.
Ephesians chapter 5.
And verse 8.
The first part of the verse.
For ye were sometimes darkness.
But now are ye light in the Lord?
Now this is true of every child of God.
We were at one time darkness.
Now you notice the language. It doesn't say that we were one time in the dark. We were sometimes darkness, that is, that we were identified with the moral condition of darkness.
But now.
Are ye light in the Lord?
Brethren, God has not only shone into our hearts to give the light of the glorious gospel of Christ in the gospel of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He has not only brought us by grace into the light.
But he has told us that we are light in the Lord. Isn't it a marvelous thing, beloved brethren, that the Word of God should describe those who were sometimes morally identified with the condition of darkness, but God separated between light and darkness?
And now he tells us that we are identified.
With the light, we are light in the Lord.
And now if you return, please to 1St Thessalonians chapter 5.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
And verse 5.
Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day.
We are not of the night, nor of darkness.
And we're not only spoken of as light in the Lord.
But God speaks of us as the children of light.
You are all the children of light and the children of the day. We go back to the first chapter of Genesis, and it tells us distinctly there that God called the light day.
And the darkness he called night. Now it tells us that not only has God worked sovereignly to bring light out of darkness, not only has he brought us into the light so that we walk in the light as He is in the light, not only has he morally conformed us as to what God has done to that light.
By saying that we are light in, the Lord identified us with the light.
But he has told us that we are the children of light and identified with the day.
Now, brethren, this is what God has done.
He divided between the light and the darkness.
And every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ here tonight is a child of the day.
How could we go back to Genesis chapter one for a moment?
Genesis chapter one and verse 14.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night.
And let them be for signs and for seasons.
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And for days and years. And let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth.
And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also, and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the 4th day.
Now, if you would just keep your finger there again, please, and turn it over to John's Gospel Chapter 8.
John's Gospel, chapter 8 and verse 12.
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The 9th chapter.
And the fourth verse.
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
John's Gospel chapter 15 I think it is.
John's Gospel chapter 15 and verse 22.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin.
He that hateth me, hateth my father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sinned. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father.
Brendan we find back in Genesis chapter one.
That in the early part of the chapter that we read, God divided between the light and the darkness.
But now we find that God speaks of having appointed or made two great lights.
And he says distinctly in the 18th verse, to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light.
From the darkness.
Now these two great lights, I'm sure you realize, are the sun and the moon.
And he tells us he made the stars also.
And in that sun, that greater light, the one that is the source of.
Heat source of life in so many ways. Scientifically, as far as this world is concerned, we have such a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater light.
And when he was here in this world, he was here as in a body that had been prepared for him.
And here in this world, as long as he was in the world, he was the light of the world. And what did he do?
All brethren, he ruled over the day.
Now there's going to come a day when his rule is going to be manifested in power.
When He is truly going to rule in all majesty and glory.
But while he was here in this world, while he was the light of the world.
Sin had no dominion.
Sin was rebuked by his presence.
He was the light.
And he divided between the light and the darkness.
And so it was, we find when we look at those verses in John chapter 15.
The Lord Jesus speaks of himself as the one who had come and having come.
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Man had no cloak for his sin.
We go back to Genesis chapter 3 and what do we find? We find Adam and Eve have sowed fig leaves together, made themselves aprons.
But the Lord God comes.
And they hide. They have no cloak for their sin, nothing that will enable them to.
Stand in the presence of light because they're morally dark.
Now, beloved brethren, the Lord Jesus divided between the day and the night. He divided between the light.
And the darkness and as it says so beautifully here in the 14th verse.
Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.
Here was a light.
A great light, Oh, what a marvelous light. And brethren, can I say it, set the pattern for the life of those who were to be identified with the light?
John, James, Peter, those who came to him, Mary Magdalene.
They found that their whole life, everything, signs, seasons, days, years, everything centered was fixed, was determined by that great light, that marvelous light that had come into the world.
He divided between light and darkness. God had done it in the.
Power in.
As an act sovereignly of God. Earlier we find, but here was one.
A great light.
And while he was here?
There was number confusion between light and darkness.
There was number question.
As to what was sin and what was not sin.
The standard was Christ.
He was there what was suited to his presence.
Was light. What was not suited to his presence was darkness.
And there were no areas in between light and darkness.
But the Lord Jesus is not here anymore.
They cast him out.
They rejected that light.
In the third chapter of John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus.
Gives us in a sense of moral anticipation of what man's result was going to be.
When he said men loved darkness rather than light.
Because their deeds are evil.
And so the result is that they put out the greater light.
But there's another light.
And this is the light.
Physically speaking, hear the light of the moon.
It's that light, beloved brethren, that reflects the light of the sun.
And it's the light that shines.
At a time of darkness.
But you notice the language that's used in the 14th verse it talks about.
Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night.
And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.
Let them be for likes in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth.
And it was so.
God made two great lights, the 17th. First, God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night.
And to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Now, brethren, what is brought before us here is the sun and the moon, the greater light and the lesser light.
But the testimony, the effect.
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The light.
The signs, the seasons, the days, the years of both.
Are to be the same.
Now, I don't mean by that.
That the moon gives the same amount of light.
God very jealously guards that which is connected with His Son, and He talks about the greater light and the lesser light, but they, the greater light and the lesser light were to be for signs.
And Four Seasons.
For days and for years.
In other words.
The effect of the sun.
That rule that it exercised?
That display before the world.
The character of the light.
Was to be the same.
And brethren, this is vital for us to lay hold of Indiana, our souls.
We find that the lights were to be for signs.
And for seasons.
For days and for years.
The Lord Jesus, when He was here, was the full display in himself of that light.
Now.
As far as his glory was concerned, it was veiled.
To a large extent, not his moral glory, but the display of that glory and power was veiled.
Except for those rare occasions when the Lord Jesus allowed it to be displayed.
But there was never any question.
As to the moral character of God, who is light displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he was for signs. You and I are to be for the same kind of sign.
For seasons.
For days and for years.
All, brethren, he didn't belong to this world, and neither do you and I.
He was going back to his father.
And you and I anticipate leaving here at any moment.
He was set apart.
As belonging to heaven, though in grace he reached out to the Sinner.
And you and I are set apart. We belong to heaven.
You know, there's a most marvelous verse in First Corinthians 15 and I have enjoyed meditating on it so much in the last few months time and again.
It says, as is the heavenly.
So are they also that are heavenly?
Think of that for a moment.
As is the heavenly.
Is there any question in your mind that the Lord Jesus.
Is the man out of heaven?
That he is in every possible way suited to heaven.
Can I use such a term as saying heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ?
Are identified one with the other.
While the word of God says as is the heavenly, so are they also that are heavenly.
You belong to heaven, and I say it reverently. Beloved brethren, you and I belong to heaven now.
As much as the Lord Jesus does.
As is the heavenly.
Now it says in the 18th verse.
These lights were to rule over the day and over the night.
Well, it's the night time.
They put out the light.
And now, since that great light in that sense has been put out, the lesser light.
Has been here to display.
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It's a picture of the church.
It's a picture of a corporate testimony to what is suited to Christ to display that light.
And it says that they are to rule.
Over the day.
And now, over the night.
Now, brethren, how do we rule?
Well, if we were to turn to Romans chapter 6, we won't take the time, but you know the verse very well.
It gives us to see there that the result.
Of the work of Christ is that sin has no more dominion over us.
Brethren, I can never under any possible circumstances ever since.
And say I couldn't help it.
Since I became a child of God.
If I sin against the Lord, it's because I chose to.
And there is no other excuse ever for it.
Because now that you and I are children of God.
Sin no more has dominion.
Now in that 6th chapter of Romans when it talks about the Lord Jesus.
It says Death hath no more dominion over him.
That is that at Calvary the Lord Jesus voluntarily.
Submitted himself to the power of death.
And then rose triumphant over it. But he was never subject.
To the power of sin.
Sin never had dominion over him, but it did over you.
And it did over me.
But no more.
When we belong to Christ.
We not only are brought into the light, made children of the light and children of the day.
But we are delivered from the power.
The power of darkness.
We sin no longer has dominion.
And we are to rule over the night.
The knight is not to rule over us.
And it goes on to say.
And to divide the light from the darkness.
Now God divided the light from the darkness and brought you into the light, and brought me into the light, identified us with the light, made us children of light and children of the day.
And now you and I are called upon to divide.
Between the light and the darkness, all you say. I thought God did that. He did.
We go back to the fourth verse that says God divided the lights in the darkness.
But now it says.
That that greater light is to divide the light from the darkness. And he did.
And now it says the lesser light is to divide the light from the darkness.
Brethren, are we doing that?
Are we doing that, dividing the light from the darkness?
Remember, God has acted to bring us into the light.
That's what he's done in Sovereign Grace. But now we're called upon to divide.
The light from the darkness.
To turn with me again to Ephesians chapter 5 for a moment.
Ephesians chapter 5.
Verse 8.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
But rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
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For whatsoever doth make manifesties light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.
And Christ shall give thee light.
Some of you older brethren here I know will remember.
My dearly beloved servant of Christ, who's been with the Lord for many years.
Who used to remind our hearts so often?
But every exhortation of Scripture is founded upon what you possess.
Never on doing something together.
We see that brought out so simply here.
Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
In other words, brethren, you and I are children of light.
And that's how we're to walk.
We couldn't conceive, I'm sure, of someone like Prince Charles, who's often used as an example. We can't, couldn't conceive of Prince Charles responding very well to the suggestion that if he walked circumspectly, he might one day become the Prince of Wales.
His answer would be I am the Prince of Wales.
But what about the suggestion that since you are the Prince of Wales, there's a conduct that's becoming to one who is the Prince of Wales?
Brethren, we are the children of Light.
Now God is giving us to see here in the strongest possible language.
The need to separate between light and darkness.
But now are ye lighting the Lord walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. No Gray areas.
No, brethren, no Gray areas.
Is of God, is according to righteousness.
And goodness and truth.
Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
Not what is acceptable unto the brethren.
Not what is acceptable unto us as parents when we view it in the light of our families.
But what is acceptable unto the Lord?
And have no fellowship.
With the unfruitful works of darkness.
But rather reprove them.
O brethren, remember, go back, if you will please, to what we were talking about at the beginning of this meeting.
What Saints? What sex?
The moral character of what is acceptable to God is Christ.
He is the one who is in the midst.
On the tree of the garden he is the one.
And when our eyes are upon Christ.
There is no place for human reasoning.
But when we simply look at our own responsibility and get our eyes off the standard of Christ.
Then we're just like Eve. We're cast adrift to whatever seems good to the eyes, whatever seems good to eat, whatever seems acceptable to ourselves.
And not.
What is according?
To the holiness of.
And so we find it says, For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the Light, for whatsoever doth make manifest his life.
Whatsoever doth make manifest.
Is light.
The light.
Is that into which we have been brought. Now we're to walk as children of light.
And as walking as children of light, we are a display of the light.
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And that should have the effect of reproving.
All the works of darkness.
You remember the beautiful story told about our dear brother in Lansing, MI.
Sure, many of the president have heard it, but to my own soul, it's exceedingly sweet.
The time he was in the lunch room at the plant where he worked.
And somebody told a story that wasn't very nice at all, and he didn't even smile.
And one of the men asked him what was wrong. Why didn't he join in the laughter with the others?
And his answer was.
I dwell in the presence of God.
My brethren, there is the light that reproves the darkness.
It goes on to say, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from. And if you'll allow me to to mention it, it should read, Rise from among the dead, and Christ shall give you light, or Christ shall shine upon thee.
When a man is sleeping amongst a lot of dead people.
It's very difficult to tell who's dead and who's asleep.
But when the cry comes and says wake.
Can you see the difference?
The ones who hear the voice.
It proves that they weren't dead, they were just sleeping.
And they arise.
And the light shines upon you.
The Lord Jesus looks for you and I, beloved brethren, to divide the darkness.
So that every decision that S made by you as a parent.
By you as just one of the young people in your moral decisions that you make at school tomorrow.
The questions that are going to arise in your class this week or next week.
Those who go to work.
Those who are parents, the decisions were faced to make in our families.
The decisions that must be made in the assembly.
Brethren, they must always divide between light and darkness.
And what is decided must always be in accordance.
With the holiness of the one.
Who is in the midst?
Remember, the tree in the midst of the garden is the tree of life.
Not just the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now God has acted. Our time has gone. God has acted.
In marvelous grace, brethren, if we were to turn over to Genesis chapter 21, a chapter that's well known to us to many here.
We would find a description of a coming scene of Glory, a city.
A city that has the glory of God.
And it has no need of the sun or the moon.
And has no need of lights to shine in darkness. It has no need of lights to separate between light and darkness.
Because everything that is there is morally suited to the presence of God.
Having the presence of God.
A scene of glory where everything that the eye of God rests upon.
Is suited to himself as light.
Brethren, may we be diligent.
May we be cast upon the Lord for our children.
May we be cast upon the Lord in our personal decisions.
And may we be cast upon the Lord in the assembly.
That everything that we do.
Everything that we allow, every decision that our children see us making.
That by the grace of God, it divides between light and darkness.
And that what is done, what is said, what is decided is suited.
To the light.
And to which we have been brought by grace.